It is noted that
Does the forum software provide any means of preventing necroing by automatically closing any topic that is dormant for X days where X might be e.g. 365?
If so, would it be desirable to enable that?
You can automatically lock posts some time after the last reply, but I’m not sure if Discourse allows you to set a time limit as long as 1 year.
Unless we get more than one frustrated individual doing this, I don’t think it is worth addressing. If that one repeats his actions over and over again, he’s a candidate for banning altogether.
I don’t want to see topics being automatically closed, even if they are old, because when something gets solved or some new development happens on an old issue, updates can be posted.
If someone is doing a search, they might encounter the old closed topic, but might not find the new follow-up topic that addresses the same issue. For example, the solution that I have posted for getting the Bluetooth to work with the ath9k card will probably need an update with Byzantium. If topics get automatically closed, people searching for solutions might stumble on the old solution and not realize that it no longer works, because there are no followup posts in the same topic to explain the situation.
True but that is an argument against the forum rule itself, rather than whether technology enforces it.
That can be addressed by putting the actual solution in an FAQ / Tips / documentation / whatever page … and linking to it from the forum, in which case the forum topic does not need updating.
One more reason why Purism needs a community wiki like PINE64 has.